(Topic ID: 9657)

Need help troubleshooting LOTR-UPDATED SOLVED PROBLEM

By DCFAN

12 years ago



Topic Stats

  • 5 posts
  • 2 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 12 years ago by pinmike
  • Topic is favorited by 1 Pinsider

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#1 12 years ago

During gameplay I started having this problem where the plunger sends a second ball into play at random times while I have a ball already in the playfield. It usually happens once or twice during the game while the active ball is moving and even happened once during destroy the ring last night. It does not appear to be a multi-ball issue.

The only areas of the game I have worked on recently are the flipper coil sleeves and the ring spinner switch, so I am wondering if I caused a problem in one of those areas.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

#2 12 years ago

First thing to check is the the ball through switch in switch test and see
if it is operating normally.Then check the ball thru opto boards you can
check this in the test menu.It will show you how many balls are being
detected in the thru.It could be a flakey/bad opto or you might need to
reflow some solder on that board.This is a common problem caused by
vibration and the contacts on the opto board become flakey.

#3 12 years ago

Thanks pinmike, I will check those in the next day or so and go from there.
I will keep you updated.
I was also thinking it may have something to do with the ball trough sensors/switches, but did not know where to start.

I guess when testing the opto boards it would be a good idea to test with various quantities of the balls in the trough to see if it is consistently accurately counting. The game is acting up when the one ball is in play and the other three are in the trough, but it can be difficult to tell if it is plunging balls during multi-ball that are not supposed to be in play during multi-ball since there are some auto-plunged as a result of hitting the palantir target.
Also, my LOTR LE has a shaker motor factory installed and just maybe a bad connection at the switches/sensors is rearing its head when the machine is vibrating/shaking such as you mentioned "vibrations".

#4 12 years ago

Pinmike thanks again for all the info on optos.
It looks like I got lucky this time. I looked under the playfield near the ball trough and flipper coils and there were small wire connectors on each side that were not pushed together well. I pushed them together all the way and then played a couple of short games last night and a fairly long game tonight (about 25-30 minutes) and it is not spitting out any balls that it is not supposed to.
Also, I looked at the solder joints on the ball trough opto and it looked solid even though something like that can sometimes fool the eye. The machine is only a few months old so hopefully I will not have to do anything to the opto boards for a while.

#5 12 years ago

That's Great to hear..Enjoy your game!!

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